Abstract
Introduction: Medical error reporting has been recognized as the cornerstone of patient safety practices; however, healthcare personnel often do not report errors. In order to increase the frequency of error reporting, it is important to understand both the healthcare workers' attitudes towards reporting, as well as what they perceive as barriers. Aim: The aim of this literature review was to identify the medical error reporting attitudes of healthcare personnel worldwide, as well as the barriers they encounter and their suggestions to increase reporting. Methods: The national and international databases were scanned to identify the studies performed on medical error attitudes and barriers. A total of 28 studies that fit the criteria were evaluated. Results: According to the studies that were analyzed, the most commonly encountered reporting barrier was the fear of individual and legal accusations among healthcare personnel. The personnel most frequently suggested using anonymous reporting systems, modifying the accusation culture and encouraging timely reporting in order to eliminate the reporting barriers. Conclusion: This review provides up-to-date information on medical error reporting barriers, solution suggestions directed towards these barriers, and suggestions from healthcare personnel for an effective reporting system. It will guide healthcare providers, quality and risk management unit employees, administrators, and institutions that are trying to develop an effective reporting system toward quality patient care.
Highlights
Medical error reporting has been recognized as the cornerstone of patient safety practices; healthcare personnel often do not report errors
Search strategy A systematic review of the literature relating to medical errors, error reporting, error reporting barriers, and reporting systems in all countries was conducted in February of 2014
Despite a common terminology related to the severity, types and outcomes of errors having been developed by international patient safety authorities, it was seen that this terminology is still not used and conceptualized as basic information by healthcare professionals
Summary
Medical error reporting has been recognized as the cornerstone of patient safety practices; healthcare personnel often do not report errors. In the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) report Human Error, it was indicated that “medical care may not be safe” and it was estimated that, in US hospitals, between 44,000 and 98,000 individuals die annually from medical errors. This number is greater than the number of deaths due to traffic accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS. According to the IOM literature, an estimated number of 210,000 annual fatal medical errors (in an evidence based method) were related to preventable damages. The actual number of deaths related to preventable errors has been estimated to be 400,000 per year [4]
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